Caregiver and infant interaction

• What is Reciprocity?


  Refers to a from of turn taking between a mother an infant. Each person responds to the others signal sustaining interaction. EG: Mother smiling and baby smiling back
• What is interactional synchrony?

  Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a synchronised way. EG: Mum looks out the window, so does baby
• What does Motheses mean?

  The sing song like tone parents often use to talk to their babies. (baby-talk)
• What research supports Motherese?

  It is vital for child development both from a language and an attachment perspective.
• What is the aim of Melzoff and Moore's experiment?

  To investigate reciprocity between infants and their caregivers.
• What was the procedure of Melzoff and Moore's experiment?

  Meltzoff and Moore (1997) conducted a series of controlled observations using babies (aged 6 to 27 days old). The Babies were exposed to four different stimuli; three facial gestures (e.g. sticking tongue out) and one manual gesture (e.g. waving fingers). The babies response to each of these gestures were observed and their actions were video recorded. An independent observer (who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen) was asked to note all instances of tongue protrusion and head movements using a number of behavioural categories. Each observer scored the recordings twice (allowing for both inter-rater reliability and intra-observer reliability to be assessed).
• What were the findings and conclusion of Melzoff and Moore's experiment?

  Findings: The results indicated that babies aged 12 to 27 days old could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures.

  Conclusions: Meltzoff and Moore concluded that the ability to imitate serves as an important building block for later social and cognitive development.
• How was the internal validity of Melzoff and Moore's experiement?


  Infants move their mouths and wave constantly - as they don't have the ability to control it. Therefore we cannot be certain that infants engage in interactional synchrony or reciprocity.
• What was good with observer bias in Melzoff and Moore's experiement?

  They used an independant observer who didn't know they aim. Which meant that there was no possibility of the observer conscioulsy or unconciously interpreting behaviour to support the findings.
• What is Isabella find and how did it critisise Melzoff and Moore's experiement?

  She found that the more securely attached a child was, the greater interactional synchrony occured. Which suggests that all children may not engage and Melzoff and Moore may have overlooked individual differences for children who are not attached.
• How is Motherese usefull?

  Parents use this style to bring out as much sophisticated language development in their children Evidence shows that children also grow a heightened ability. Children prefer adult to speak to them in motherese and the amount they hear it is directly proportional to oxytocin secretion which links to future attachment.
• How is Mothese a universal attachment?

  It is used all over the world, suggesting it is biological or evolutionary and not cultural.